Today’s reading records the moment when Jesus left his home town, never to live there again. In Luke’s gospel it is clearer that this decision was due to his experience of rejection at Nazareth (Lk 4:30,31). His townspeople tried to throw him over a cliff because he said things they didn’t like to hear. As soon as John had finished his testimony Jesus began his in Galilee. Galilee was at the crossroads of the world and much traffic passed through this little region. It had been assigned to the tribes of Asher, Naptali and Zebulum when the Israelites first came into the land ( Joshua 9). For a long time it had been under Gentile occupation. Isaiah foretold (Is. 9) that the good news of salvation would be proclaimed in this land and reach to the Gentiles. Jesus begins the proclamation of the gospel here to fulfill the word of God. The Old Testament prophets spoke of God’s promise to send a Redeemer who would establish God’s rule. That time is now fulfilled in Jesus.
Jesus takes up John’s message of repentance and calls disciples to believe in the good news he has come to deliver. He encourages them on the very simplest level to "re-form" their lives, in order to live in God's Kingdom. The task was to awaken a race alienated from God from the beginning. There was only one word for it—‘Repent!’ Take a fresh look! He was calling the blind to see. Repentance is less about sorrow and regret than a challenge to see straight. Repentance requires a life-change and a transformation of heart and mind.
The Holy Spirit gives us grace to see our sin for what it is – rebellion and a rejection of the love of God. Faith is an entirely free gift which God makes to us. To believe is to take Jesus at his word, to believe that God loved us so much that he sent his only begotten Son to redeem us from the slavery of sin and death. God wants to change our way of thinking and transform our lives by the power of his word. Let’s give our life to the hand of God to be re-formed by the powerful, careful hands of a God who continues to call us to life, to re-create us in His own image.
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